Combating Challenges in Accounting Career

The assignment involves a personal reflection on the challenges faced by an accounting student. The student identifies their strengths, such as being on schedule and meeting deadlines, but also acknowledges potential drawbacks like pressure to complete tasks quickly. They use Schoen's model of reflection to analyze their experiences and think about how to address these issues in the future.

A Reflection on my Suitability to the Accounting and
Finance Sectors

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Schoen’s model of reflection, Career Anchors, MBTI....................................................................2
Reflection/Conclusion.....................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
This assignment aims to assess my suitability for the accounting sector. I'll look at the qualities
expected to excel in the accounting and finance industry and equate them to my talents,
attributes, and career goals. To help me do this, I'll use Schoen's reflection model (Schoen,
2012). It is not an easy judgment, and contemplation should be based on knowledge,
comprehension, and emotions (Akimoto, et all, 2014). It's a common occurrence for us to focus
on events that have occurred in our daily lives and the reasons for those events.
Communication skills, a high degree of numeracy skills, understanding of accounting principles,
analytical skills, teamwork skills, self-motivation, honesty, and honesty were among the skills
employers required in the accounting industry, according to my research.
Schoen’s model of reflection, Career Anchors, MBTI
When reflecting on an event, Schoen's model of reflection describes the multiple questions you
can ask yourself (Schoen, 2013). To accurately represent, these questions should be asked before
an experience, during an experience, and after an experience (Larson, 2014). The MBTI, Schein
questionnaire, and Hogan and Champagne questionnaire were all completed in training. I'm
going to draw on the information I gathered from the questionnaire.
According to Schoen's model of reflection, we should write down our feelings prior to the
experience and state what we expect to happen and the challenges we expect to face (Donald
Schon (Schön): learning, reflection and change – infed.org:, 2021). When we were told in class
that the questionnaires would help us classify information about ourselves, I was skeptical. I
didn't think a questionnaire might teach me much about my core talents, abilities, or personality.
I was cynical of the whole process and didn't intend to learn much from the assignments because
I already assumed I understood what my talents and characteristics were and that I knew more
than the questionnaires.
The Schein questionnaire, which recognizes unique job anchors, was the first one we completed
(Morrison, 2021). My top job anchors, according to the findings of the survey, are general
management competence, security and stability competence, and technological and practical

skills competence. When I thought about it after the experience, I was shocked to learn that
General Management was my highest career anchor because I had always assumed that I wanted
to be an accounting professional. I tried to do some more digging on this to see what the general
management competencies were, and it turned out that they were people who didn't give up,
wanted to be responsible and accountable for an organization, but weren't interested in operating
in a specialist capacity (Lotich, 2021). I pondered the findings after finishing the jobs anchors
questionnaire. I concluded that the questionnaire was accurate because I recognized a need for
security and stability in my job position after conducting extensive research into jobs that were
not terminated during a recession and eventually settling on accounting due to the sector's steady
progress. Skills in technical and organizational excellence I have recognized myself in that I
found I had a willingness to study more specialized skills at a higher level. For example, I
learned the fundamentals of accounting during my business degree, but I have also grown a
passion to know more about this field. However, I realized that my strong corporate development
competency could not be a suitable match for accounting because I would like to be interested in
the overall operation of a company rather than just statistics and financial statement preparation.
This made me wonder whether I was suited to an accounting job or whether I should pursue a
general management position.
Until taking the character strength test, I expected that my strengths would be that I never gave
up and that I was still centered (The Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues, 2021).
When I got the results of the character characteristics test, my top attribute was industry
diligence and perseverance, which I expected because I still want to complete tasks on time.
While this might be an asset when working to a schedule, it could also be a liability because if I
always want to finish the task I have, I could panic and forget items, that could have negative
implications. Self-control and regulation, toughness and velour, and confidence, ambition, and
foresight were among my other character qualities. Since receiving these findings and focusing
on them, I agreed with both of them and was not shocked by the results because these are
personality strengths that I have previously recognized in myself. These skills, I believe, can also
be useful in the accounting industry, where self-control and foresight are needed. However, I was
surprised that ‘love of studying' was not mentioned as a character attribute so accountants must
be able to read new laws and study after work every night to practice for exams. This made me

aware that I would have trouble staying focused when studying for accounting exams if I have to
study all evening after work.
Finally, after completing the MBTI questionnaire, which assesses our psychological biases for
receiving information and making choices. Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging were
my personality traits as determined by the questionnaire (The Myers & Briggs Foundation -
Versions of the MBTI® Questionnaire, 2021). I was surprised by the outcome of the
questionnaire because I had always considered myself an introvert. After focusing on being an
extrovert, I realized that there are benefits and drawbacks to being one in the accounting field.
Being an extrovert is beneficial for talking and making presentations. If I have to work alone, I
will find it difficult because I won't get any social interaction; but, after giving it some
consideration, I've concluded that I'm not a serious extrovert because I've always felt like I'm
more of an introvert. Since reflecting on being intuitive and the accounting industry, I believe
that there are benefits and drawbacks of being intuitive. I believe that becoming intuitive may
benefit an organization because it allows you to see the big picture and anticipate the future. But,
I believe that being intuitive deprives me of sense, which may be more beneficial in accounting
when you focus on the facts, the present, and are more realistic. I agreed with the findings that I
am a thinker and judger because I like to say I use rational thinking and work on assignments,
which I feel makes me get things done. However, becoming a thinker rather than a feeler can
make it more difficult for me to form relationships with customers, which is crucial in the
accounting industry.
Reflection/Conclusion
I learned a lot about myself after completing the questionnaires in class and getting instructions. I
discovered previously unknown qualities and shortcomings in myself concerning my chosen
industry. I realized that as an extravert, I would find it tough to prep for accounting exams and
that I don't have as much of a passion for studying as I once thought. I'm going to continue to
deal with these problems by not putting as much pressure on myself to finish the accounting tests
as soon as I had expected and just give myself some time. I have realized that I am putting a lot
of pressure and tension on myself to do something as soon as possible and that I can calm down
and just do what I can after having some reflection and coaching sessions. In conclusion, my

talents are well-suited to the accounting profession, such as my desire to complete tasks on
schedule and meet deadlines, as well as my numeracy abilities and perseverance. However, class
exercises and questionnaires have made me mindful of certain possible challenges I might face
along the way, and my abilities tend to be somewhat similar to those of an accountant. I have
followed Schoen's model of reflection by reflecting before I got the results and thinking about
what they said and potential advantages and disadvantages it could cause me, and also reflecting
afterward about how I could combat this in the future. I want to combat my potential
disadvantages by continuing to study accounting (10 Must-Know Pros and Cons of an
Accounting Career, 2021). I have thought about the questionnaires we completed, and I believe
they were very helpful in determining my strengths and shortcomings, as well as providing me
with a sense of direction.

References
Schoen, A.H., 2012. Reflections concerning triply-periodic minimal surfaces. Interface
focus, 2(5), pp.658-668.
Akimoto, Y., Sugiura, M., Yomogida, Y., Miyauchi, C.M., Miyazawa, S. and Kawashima, R.,
2014. Irony comprehension: Social conceptual knowledge and emotional response. Human Brain
Mapping, 35(4), pp.1167-1178.
Schoen, R., 2013. Modeling multigroup populations. Springer Science & Business Media.
Larson, R. and Csikszentmihalyi, M., 2014. The experience sampling method. In Flow and the
foundations of positive psychology (pp. 21-34). Springer, Dordrecht.
Infed.org. 2021. Donald Schon (Schön): learning, reflection and change – infed.org:. [online]
Available at: <https://infed.org/mobi/donald-schon-learning-reflection-change/> [Accessed 14
March 2021].
Morrison, M., 2021. Career Anchors - Edgar Schein. [online] RapidBI. Available at:
<https://www.rapidbi.com/careeranchors/> [Accessed 14 March 2021].
Lotich, P., 2021. 12 Competencies Every Manager Should Master – The Thriving Small
Business. [online] The Thriving Small Business. Available at:
<https://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/manager-competencies/> [Accessed 14 March 2021].
PositivePsychology.com. 2021. The Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues. [online]
Available at: <https://positivepsychology.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/>
[Accessed 14 March 2021].
Myersbriggs.org. 2021. The Myers & Briggs Foundation - Versions of the MBTI®
Questionnaire. [online] Available at: <https://www.myersbriggs.org/using-type-as-a-
professional/versions-of-the-mbti-questionnaire/> [Accessed 14 March 2021].

Rasmussen.edu. 2021. 10 Must-Know Pros and Cons of an Accounting Career. [online]
Available at: <https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/business/blog/must-know-pros-cons-
accounting-career/> [Accessed 14 March 2021].